Research on e-cigarettes conducted by prominent public health researchers in South Africa has emphasised the need to speedily pass the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill (2018) into law. Two years have passed since the Bill closed for public comments in August 2018, during which time the e-cigarette industry, currently largely unregulated, has further taken hold in the country.
Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, executive director of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM) at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, said the research results support an urgent need for a regulated environment in order to better protect the youth from the health harms of e-cigarette addiction.
“While the tobacco and e-cigarette industry likes to position e-cigarettes as cessation aids, the limited effectiveness of these products for long-term quitting, the health harms associated with usage and the industry’s clear and targeted marketing to youth are facts which are conveniently omitted from their narrative,” says Mr Ayo-Yusuf, a professor.
“These series of studies provide very useful information to guide policy makers in South Africa.”
e-cigarettes use
The series of three studies, conducted by the ATIM and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), assessed local e-cigarette use, evaluated the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as cessation aids, and analysed the costs of e-cigarette usage. Finally, geospatial mapping was used to understand the distribution of vape shops across South Africa and how this may impact youth usage.
Based on two large population-level surveys, the prevalence study shows a growing prevalence of regular e-cigarette use by South Africans older than 16 years. 2.71% of adults, translating to 1,09 million people, used e-cigarettes during 2018. Most of these e-cigarette users were concurrently regularly smoking cigarettes.
The second study on cessation concludes that any…
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